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Shamel English rocks his 2-year-old dog, Gemini, in his arms after she passed away from a fire at 325 Windsor St. in Reading. “She was more than a dog,” English said, “she was a part of our family.” Gemini was one of five dogs who perished in the fire. Photo by Natalie Kolb 1/30/2015

Nothing lasts forever, unless it’s on the Internet. That’s why news of James Garner’s passing keeps appearing in my Facebook feed, even though Garner died in July 2014.

That’s also why we’ve seen renewed interest in a photo posted on readingeagle.com in January. The above photo, taken by Natalie Kolb, initially generated a backlash of sorts on Facebook and in our Letters to the Editor. But time and distance appear to have healed the wounds of the Web.

(I’m not saying this is the case of Shamel English, the man in the photo. I can only hope his grief has dissipated, at least a little.)

What was once a source of online outrage now generates sympathy and warmth. The photo of English and Gemini, his late dog, has gone viral since it was first posted Jan. 30. It appeared on a reddit thread, on Tumblr blogs and on Pinterest pages. A viral Facebook page picked it up:

A man tearfully holds his dog after she passed away from smoke inhalation. The photo was taken shortly after…

The message around all of them was not that a callous news site published a sensitive photo, but that all animal lovers know how strong the bond is between people and their pets.

That’s what the photo conveyed so well, even if people couldn’t see it at first. But time and distance help temper the initial emotions.

Most encouraging is the fact that people are once again reaching out to us on Facebook. But this time they want to know how they can contact English and help him.

All because of a photo that many people didn’t want us to publish in the first place.

This story also carries an important lesson in fact-checking, though. The photo got heavy circulation on South African sites when someone incorrectly said the fire took place in Cape Town. One site corrected the misperception, to its credit.

Every photo, no matter how inspiring, uplifting or heartbreaking, should be fact checked. Don’t believe everything you see or read on the Internet.

It’s been a tough week on social media for four people and a TV station. Sen. Rand Paul and three criminals all had a bad week, but the state of Hawaii had a good one. Take a look:

First the five social media fails:

Sen. Rand Paul: The Kentucky Senator and 2016 presidential hopeful made a Pinterest page for his presumed White House rival, Hillary Clinton. The page, before it was deleted, included boards labeled “Inspirational Quotes”, “Power Couple” and “White House Remodel.” Because, you know, girls like to redecorate. Pinterest took the account down, because impersonations violate the social network’s terms of service. You’d think Paul would have less sexist ways of criticizing Clinton. It’s worth noting he didn’t create a fake Pinterest page for Ted Cruz.

Derrick Newbolt: The 22-year-old man allegedly held up a pharmacy and a smoke shop in Bloomington, Ind., and was caught when police looked up his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts and found photos of him holding the same gun described in the robberies.

The teen accused of stabbing three sisters in Pontiac, Mich.: Police say a 17-year-old girl stabbed three people, one of whom was hospitalized, as part of a dispute fueled by Facebook. I don’t know what was said, online or off, but I’ve seen enough idiotic posts on Facebook to know that nothing said there is ever cause for violence.

Brennan Clay: TMZ.com reported this week that the former Dallas Cowboy posted an “inspirational message” on Instagram Jan. 27. That’s not a fail until you consider that Jan. 27 was also the day that Clay was arrested on charges of domestic violence. What did he have to say on social media that fateful day?

“Just remember the second you decide to give up could be the second God is turning your situation around.”

Maybe he should have given up on beating his wife. Just a suggestion.

KIRO-TV: The decision to label something “breaking news” is tricky and, in this world of 24-hour news cycles, always a temptation. But the Seattle-based TV station stretched the definition to the non-breaking point this week when it sent out a “breaking news” item about: tourism in Seattle. If we get to the point where every news item is “breaking,” then nothing really is. Credit Matthew Keys with busting them initially on this bogus breaker.

This week’s social media winner:

The state of Hawaii. The managers of the 50th state’s state parks have tried everything else to keep people away from a dangerous waterfall. Eight people were killed and more than 50 injured at Sacred Falls in a 1999 landslide but that hasn’t kept hikers away. So the state uploaded a video warning people to stay away, and has shared it on Facebook, Twitter and Vimeo. The scenery is beautiful and the warning is stark: Keep out of Sacred Falls park.

Lest you think that net neutrality is just about curbing the excesses of Internet service providers, two mobile carriers showed this week that they can play the pay-for-access game, too.

Sprint, for starters, has offered a low-cost unlimited data plan under its Virgin Mobile brand: $12 a month for all the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest that you want.

That’s not an “and”; that’s an “or.” It does not include, presumably, email, Web browsing or streaming music. That last one is available, though, for an additional $5 a month.

It might seem like a great deal, but it’s a deal that only allows you partial access to the Internet. I know many people spend lots of time on Facebook, but imagine if that were your only portal to the online world.

Imagine if all you knew of the Internet was this.

Sprint’s move may be cheap, but it only gives you a partial portal to the Internet. It’s a bad deal for consumers, sure. Worse, it’s a chilling sign of what mobile carriers — and ISPs (why not?) — could do to restrict consumers’ access to the Internet. It’s preferential treatment to certain content providers, namely Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram,

Say what you will about the many ways the Internet has changed over the past few decades. Its one constant principle is that it’s a wide-open playground. You may have to pay for parts of it (including paywalled newspapers), to be sure, but that’s a decision made by the content provider, not the ISP or the mobile carrier.

Now, it seems, carriers can decide where they will carry you.

Verizon, meanwhile, has gotten the attention of the Federal Communications Commission. Chairman Tom Wheeler (of all people!) sent the company a strongly worded letter expressing concern about Verizon’s plan to slow down data speeds for some customers.

Verizon, according to cnet.com, announced plans to slow down some customers’ data speeds during times of high congestion. It is “only targeting cell sites experiencing high demand,” the company said in a statement.

What got the FCC’s attention? Only customers with unlimited data plans are affected. Those who have usage-based data plans won’t experience these slowdowns.

In short, the Network Optimization strategy seems to be driven not by how much the network is used, but by who’s using it.

No wonder Verizon got the FCC’s attention. We’ll have to see how this affects the debate over the agency’s “Open Internet” rules.